There's always something to do in the foothill garden! Keep up with monthly reminders and tips. Remember, though, things change fast in the foothills. Base your activities on the annual situation and microclimate of your area rather than on a strict month-to-month schedule.

January

• Keep an eye on the weather report. Protect frost-tender plants when the temperature falls below 32 degrees.
• Divide perennials like daylilies and chrysanthemums.
• Prune crepe myrtles, cane berries, and roses, and clean up trimmings.
• Prune plum, pluot, apple, and pear trees 15-20%; cherries 10%; and peaches 50%.

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February

• Above 2000 ft.: prune deciduous fruit trees, cane berries.
• Below 2000 ft.: prune grapes, roses, crepe myrtle. Paint trunks of bareroot and young fruit trees to prevent borers and protect from sunburn. Use interior white latex paint with equal amounts of water and apply generously.
• Control earwigs and sow bugs with bait or traps.

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March

• Prune grapes and roses.
• Cleanup: remove mummy fruit and blighted limbs on stone fruit to reduce brown rot.
• Remove and destroy fallen leaves to reduce peach leaf curl.
• Mulch cane berries, cut out all old canes and reset new canes in twine.

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April

• Pinch chrysanthemums back to 6 inches every month through July.
• Trim dead flowers but not leaves, from spring bulbs.
• Mulch cane berries, cut out all old canes and reset new canes in twine.

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May

• Set out traps for earwigs, slugs, and whitefly.
• Thin pit fruits at or before pit hardening.
• Thin apples when 1/2 inch in diameter.

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June

• Thin apples when 1/2 inch in diameter.
• Mow for general cleanup and fire protection.
• Mulch garden beds to retain moisture and encourage deep roots by deep and infrequent watering.

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July

• Watering and pest control are top of the to-do list.
• Water after midnight and before 10 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.
• Pinch off the top pair of leaves on all chrysanthemum shoots longer than 5 inches to keep plants bushy and produce more flowers.

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August

• Continue mulching to conserve soil moisture and control weeds.
• Keep harvesting vegetables for continued production.
• Do the final pruning of summer for fruit bushes.
• Prune apricots to avoid Eutypa fungus. Remove about 20% of this year's growth.

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September

• Compost disease-free annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.
• Cultivate and add compost to the soil for fall and winter vegetables and annuals.
• Dig, divide, and replant overgrown perennials as they finish blooming.

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October

• Clean out flower and vegetable gardens to discourage diseases and pests from overwintering in your beds.
• Rake leaves from ditches to make way for the rain that's coming.
• Reprogram drip system timers for cooler weather and rain.

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November

• Prune and clean up for fire prevention.
• Oil and sharpen tools. Sand handles. Either varnish or spray paint handles to make them easy to find in the garden.
• Pull summer annuals and vegetables.

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December

• Continue to rake up leaves for composting and to control pests and diseases.
• Clean up garden beds.
• Keep an eye on the weather report. Protect frost-tender plants when the temperature falls below 32 degrees.

Get more December gardening tips